“You’ve got to remember that common sense is not factored into the intelligence quotient”

PASADENA, Calif. — Two dozen Caltech freshmen dressed in outlandish get-ups as part of a nighttime dorm initiation got stranded on the flanks of Mount Wilson while walking down a dirt road from the observatory, it was reported Tuesday. The road was blocked by a landslide that occurred last year, the Pasadena Star-News reported.

“You’ve got to remember that common sense is not factored into the intelligence quotient,” Deputy Greg Gabriel, who leads the Altadena Search and Rescue team, told the newspaper.

On Monday night, the group had a large dinner — about 100 people live at Page House dorm — before dressing the freshmen in costumes and parading them throughout Pasadena, the Star-News reported. Upperclassmen then drove the first-year students, men and women, to the Mount Wilson Observatory, and they began the 10-mile descent down the road.

The students had no flashlights, warm clothes or other important supplies, Gabriel told the Star-News. They did, however, have “distinctive headgear — hats with antennas and horns, that kind of stuff.”

“Going up those trails in the middle of the night without any safety equipment and no lighting is pretty stupid.”